News Articles

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — Despite being of a healthier weight, lean patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have a higher overall mortality rate than patients with NAFLD who are overweight or obese, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). In addition to finding higher mortality rates, an international team of researchers found that lean patients [a body mass index (BMI) less than 25] with NAFLD were more likely to be male, non-Caucasian and to have lower rates of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension.

Researchers have taken an atomic level look at the enzyme telomerase - and what they have found may unlock the secrets to the fountain of youth.
Telomeres and the enzyme telomerase have been in the medical news a lot recently due to their connection with aging and cancer. Telomeres are found at the ends of our chromosomes and are stretches of DNA which protect our genetic data, make it possible for cells to divide, and hold some secrets as to how we age –and also how we get cancer.

Telomeres on a chromosome and shows the different components required for telomerase activity. Credit: Joshua Podlevsky

Brittle bone disease is a congenital disorder that results in fragile bones that break easily.  
A new study in Nature Medicine showed that excessive activity of an important signaling protein in the matrix of the bone called transforming growth factor beta is associated with the cause of the disease. It suggests that there may be common mechanisms that cause the decreased quality and quantity of bone in these different forms. 
"There are many genetic causes of brittle bone disease in children and adults," said Dr. Brendan Lee, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "We have discovered many of them but clinicians still cannot easily distinguish the different forms. 

A new discovery in the study of how lava dome volcanoes erupt may help predict how a volcanic eruption will behave.
Volcanologists say a process called frictional melting plays a role in determining how a volcano will erupt, by dictating how fast magma can ascend to the surface, and how much resistance it faces en-route.
The process occurs in lava dome volcanoes when magma and rocks melt as they rub against each other due to intense heat. This creates a stop start movement in the magma as it makes its way towards the earth's surface. The magma sticks to the rock and stops moving until enough pressure builds up, prompting it to shift forward again, a process called stick-slip. 

A new study has created the first detailed look at global land surface warming trends over the last 100 years, illustrating precisely when and where different areas of the world started to warm up or cool down.
Result: the world is indeed getting warmer but not everywhere and not at the same rate.
This probably took a few scientists by surprise and many journalists, but outside the IPCC this is exactly what was known to be happening..
"Global warming was not as understood as we thought," said Zhaohua Wu, an assistant professor of meteorology at Florida State University, who led a team of climate researchers that used an analysis method newly developed to examine land surface temperature trends from 1900 onward for the entire globe, minus Antarctica.

Skilled motor movements of the sort tennis players employ while serving a tennis ball or pianists use in playing a concerto, require precise interactions between the motor cortex and the rest of the brain. Neuroscientists had long assumed that the motor cortex functioned something like a piano keyboard.
"Every time you wanted to hear a specific note, there was a specific key to press," says Andrew Peters, a neurobiologist at UC San Diego's Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior. "In other words, every specific movement of a muscle required the activation of specific cells in the motor cortex because the main job of the motor cortex was thought to be to listen to the rest of the cortex and press the keys it's directed to press."

A protein that can make the failing hearts in aging mice appear more like those of young health mice similarly improves brain and skeletal muscle function in aging mice, according to two papers in Science. Professors Amy Wagers and Lee Rubin, of Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB), report that injections of a protein known as GDF11, which is found in humans as well as mice, improved the exercise capability of mice equivalent in age to that of about a 70-year-old human, and also improved the function of the olfactory region of the brains of the older mice – they could detect smell as younger mice do.

Northwestern University researchers are the first to develop a new solar cell with good efficiency that uses tin instead of lead perovskite as the harvester of light. The low-cost, environmentally friendly solar cell can be made easily using "bench" chemistry -- no fancy equipment or hazardous materials.
"This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite," said Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin. "Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work as an efficient solar cell."
Kanatzidis, who led the research, is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Is "gaydar" real? Though scientists dismiss it as being in the same vein as psychics or palm reading, some papers have claimed it is legitimate and that people can make reliable predictions of sexual orientation simply by hearing a voice or seeing a face, without there being an obvious 'tell'. If it's real, then who has better gaydar, lesbian women or straight, can be just as validly determined. The expectation is that lesbians will have superior gaydar due to their experience of choosing partners would be more tuned in to others orientation - but that could be a negative filter. Gay people tend to overestimate the prevalence of gay people. A group of scholars conducted a study which set out to reveal who has a greater interpersonal sensitivity.

How can you be both a necrophiliac and chaste?
Welcome to the fascinating world of bacterial reproduction. Bacteria don't have sex the way humans think of sex - they can mix their genetic material in a  process called recombination, by pulling in DNA from dead bacterial cells and inserting them into their own genome.
New research led by Imperial College London has found that this process – called recombination – is more complex than was first thought. The findings, published today in PLoS Genetics, could help us understand why bacteria which cause serious diseases are able to evade vaccines and rapidly become drug-resistant.

Mass outreach and awareness of bullying isn't doing much to stop bullying, it is mostly just teaching bullies what to watch out for and what buzzwords to use if they are accused.
There's another good reason to stop them, including throwing them out if they are caught; when victims feel like the system does not protect them, they protect themselves. 
A new presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver saus that an estimated 200,000 high school students who are bullied bring weapons to school. Youths who have been victimized in multiple ways are up to 31X more likely to carry a weapon to school than those who have not been bullied. 

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — Bariatric surgery, which is best known for its ability to help patients lose substantial weight, can also result in significant improvement in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). Researchers at the University of South Florida-Tampa found that bariatric surgery resolved liver inflammation and reversed early-stage liver fibrosis, the thickening and scarring of liver tissue, by reducing fat deposits in the liver.